USDA Is Putting $105 Million Behind Screwworm Research. Here's What the Science Actually Looks Like

With confirmed cases already in Texas and New Mexico, the federal government is funding 40 research projects to modernize screwworm containment. Three NC State teams are among those awarded grants and their approaches range from CRISPR-engineered sterile flies to AI-driven forecasting.

By Vet Candy Editorial  |  June 2026  |  Parasitology, Food Animal & Research

If you read our earlier coverage of the New World Screwworm outbreak in Texas and New Mexico, you know the broad picture: the parasite is back on U.S. soil for the first time since the 1960s, the sterile fly release program is running at roughly one-sixth the volume needed to be effective, and containment is a multi-year challenge.

Now we have a clearer look at what the federal research response actually looks like. The USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has awarded $105 million across 40 projects through its New World Screwworm Grand Challenge initiative — and three teams from NC State University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences are among the awardees.

The science being funded is genuinely interesting, and it matters for veterinary practitioners to understand what tools may be coming — and on what timeline.

What the USDA Grand Challenge Is Trying to Solve

The Grand Challenge initiative is organized around four priorities, all of which address known gaps in the current response:

Sterile fly production capacity. The existing sterile insect technique (SIT) program works — the science is proven. The problem is scale. Current production is roughly 100 million sterile flies per week; estimates suggest 600 million per week are needed for effective suppression. Funding here targets production efficiency and capacity.

Detection and early warning. Better traps and lures to detect screwworm populations earlier — before an infestation becomes an outbreak. Current surveillance tools are dated.

Therapeutics and treatment. Developing better tools to reduce animal health impacts once infestation is detected. For livestock producers and veterinarians managing active cases, this is the most immediately practical priority.

Preparedness and forecasting. Repellents, ecological modeling, wildlife surveillance, and other tools to get ahead of the screwworm's movement rather than chase it.

The NC State Projects: Three Very Different Approaches

Project 1: CRISPR-Engineered Sterile Males (Maxwell Scott)

Dr. Maxwell Scott, a professor of entomology and one of the country's leading experts on screwworm genetics, is working on what may be the most technically ambitious of the three projects: next-generation male-only screwworm strains that are already sterile at birth, without needing radiation.

The current SIT program sterilizes male flies using gamma irradiation — effective, but costly, and the radiation process can reduce fly fitness, which matters because sterile males need to successfully compete with wild males for mating. A less competitive sterile male is a less effective one.

"In the new FFAR project, we are using CRISPR gene-editing technologies to produce males that are already sterile and provide a fitness benefit," Scott says. "The goal is to develop an alternative way to produce competitive sterile males without the cost and liabilities of gamma irradiation."

Scott is receiving funding from both the USDA Grand Challenge and a separate Rapid Outcomes from Agricultural Research grant from the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR), the latter in collaboration with biotechnology company Agragene. The dual funding reflects the urgency and the interest from multiple parts of the research ecosystem.

If CRISPR-produced sterile males prove more competitive than irradiated ones — and can be produced at scale — it would represent a meaningful upgrade to the core SIT program that has been the foundation of screwworm control for decades.

Project 2: Forecast-Driven Deployment (Yu Takeuchi)

Dr. Yu Takeuchi, associate director for innovations at NC State's Center for Integrated Pest Management, is developing SWIFT — Screwworm Integrated Forecasting Technology — a framework that integrates habitat suitability modeling, detection probability, and dispersal potential to improve how and where sterile flies are deployed.

Right now, sterile fly release is largely area-based — you cover a region and hope for the best. SWIFT aims to make deployment smarter: directing resources to where screwworm is most likely to establish, where detection probability is highest, and where early action will have the most impact on long-term spread.

"The spread of screwworms into the United States emphasizes the urgent need for effective tools that monitor their movement, forecast their spread and support rapid action to protect agriculture across North America," Takeuchi says.

For practitioners and producers in affected states, better forecasting means earlier warning and more rational allocation of surveillance and response resources — rather than blanket anxiety about an unpredictably moving threat.

Project 3: Microbial Lures and Precision Surveillance (Loganathan Ponnusamy)

Dr. Loganathan Ponnusamy, a principal research scholar specializing in arthropod-microbe interactions, is co-leading a project with Dr. Luis Escobar of Virginia Tech focused on next-generation screwworm traps using microbial attractants — essentially, using the microbial chemistry that naturally attracts screwworm flies to wounds to build more effective and targeted surveillance traps.

The project will develop promising lure formulations and test them at agricultural sites in Guatemala, where screwworm populations are established and field conditions match the environments the lures need to work in. Guatemala provides a real-world testing ground that no U.S. laboratory setting can replicate at this stage.

Better traps and lures directly address one of the current surveillance gaps: the existing detection tools aren't sensitive or specific enough to catch screwworm populations early, before they've had time to spread.

What This Means for Veterinary Practice in the Near Term

The honest answer is that the research funded by this Grand Challenge is medium- to long-term in its payoff. CRISPR-produced screwworm strains, validated forecasting frameworks, and field-tested microbial lures don't arrive in your clinic next quarter.

What the funding does signal is that the federal government is treating this as a serious, sustained threat rather than a short-term emergency to be managed with existing tools. That matters for how you counsel producers in affected and adjacent states about their planning horizon.

For practitioners right now, the actionable picture hasn't changed from our earlier coverage: watch for wound myiasis with unusual severity, report suspected cases to your state veterinarian and USDA APHIS immediately, and make sure clients in Texas and states with entry requirements from affected areas understand the current certification requirements.

The science is catching up. In the meantime, early detection remains the most powerful tool available.

Primary Sources

Original NC State story: NC State Faculty Awarded USDA Funds to Help Bolster New World Screwworm Response

USDA APHIS — New World Screwworm Grand Challenge: USDA APHIS Screwworm Grand Challenge

USDA APHIS — Current Confirmed Cases: New World Screwworm Confirmed Detections Map